Jupiter's closeness to Earth spotted in the night sky; see pictures from around the world

On September 26, Jupiter recorded its closest distance from Earth in the last 59 years, according to NASA. The gas giant, which is undergoing the phenomenon of opposition, was roughly 591 million km from our planet. According to scientists, an opposition occurs when Jupiter and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth. With the last documented instance dating back to 1963, the event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon as Jupiter will make its next closest approach in 2129, around 107 years later. 

Jupiter and its Moon spotted across the globe

The rare celestial event brought out the astrophotographer in everyone as many netizens posted pictures of the gas giant glowing brightly in the night sky. Interestingly, a high-power telescope also offered magnificent views of Jupiter accompanied by four of its Moons during the opposition. Check out some of the images below.

"Clouds never miss any astronomical events But this time I played smart ed Jupiter four days before it's closest approach to earth... Here's ladies and gentlemen Jupiter the giant with its galilean moons (sic)", wrote a Twitter user. Besides Jupiter, its four Galilean Moons-- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto-- were also visible. These four are called Galilean Moons because they were discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. 

Apart from the above images, veteran astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy also posted a picture of Jupiter during its closest approach, delivering a splendid image featuring the planet's colourful bands. "After staying up all night shooting it, here's my shot of Jupiter at "Opposition". This is the closest its been to Earth in 59 years", McCarthy captioned his picture. He even shared a post saying he was also able to capture Jupiter rotating while orbiting the sun close to Earth.

"Since I was shooting it for hours, I captured a significant amount of Jupiter's rotation. You can see the great red spot transit the face of the planet. That's a storm that larger than Earth!", McCarthy wrote.